Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of mouthpieces for non-French horn labrosone brass musical instruments, specifically an improved mouthpiece rim for brass instruments such as tubas, trumpets, euphoniums, and trombones.
Background Art
A musical brass instrument produces sound by the sympathetic vibration of air. A sympathetic vibration is a harmonic phenomenon wherein a formerly passive vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness, and in the case of a brass instrument such as a trumpet, sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator, for instance, a trumpet mouthpiece, in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are thus also referred to as labrosones, literally meaning “lip-vibrated instruments”.
The player's ability to control the sound produced by the instrument thus is critically dependent on the player's embouchure control, specifically, the agility and flexibility of the player's lips engaging the mouthpiece of the instrument, which depends at least partially on the physical characteristics of the mouthpiece rim with which the player's lips engage.
Historically, the French horn was the first musical instrument in the brass family of instruments to be used consistently by composers in the early 1700s in orchestras, and its mouthpiece was apparently copied and repeated for all succeeding orchestral brass family instrument mouthpieces by expanding its relative size based on the different sized instruments. This resulted in a homogenous look for brass instrument family mouthpieces, but unfortunately, a resized French horn mouthpiece for a tuba, for instance, results in a mouthpiece with a fat and unwieldy rim that causes the tubaist to lose essential agility and flexibility. Non-French horn playing musicians, such as tubaists and trombonists, all suffer from the shape and size of the mouthpiece rims for those instruments: the French horn mouthpiece shape is truly only suitable for the French horn mouthpiece itself. The configuration of mouthpiece rims for brass instruments other than for French horns thus are apparently more a function and result of history and visual appeal rather than actual performance enhancement value to the players of those instruments.
What is needed is an improved mouthpiece rim for non-French horn labrosone brass instruments whose shape and size maximizes playing agility, and flexibility, and reduces to the lowest possible degree the lips dragging, sticking, or catching on the rim. Additionally, the improved rim provides a more suitable container for the player's lips, as opposed to mashing them down or unduly pressing on them.